Roll Out One of These Ideas

• What: Kid Toilet Tube Crafts
• When: Two years and up
• Why: Cheap, easy, creative
• Where: At home

Have you bought a lot of toilet paper in the last few months? Want to put your empty toilet paper tubes to good use? Consider this list of a few ideas your kids can use to repurpose this recycling staple into fun craft projects. 

I like to hand over a batch of tubes to my kids, preferably enough so that each kid can have an equal number. The more toilet tubes you have, the merrier. Neighbors and relatives without kids can also contribute to the supply if you need or want more.

Paint with Tubes: Dip the end of a toilet paper tube into paint, and dab onto paper. Kids can use one color or multiple ones to see what happens. No matter what they choose, you end up with some striking circle art. Best of all? You can recycle the tubes when they finish, no cleanup required.

Make a Forest: Take a piece of green paper and fold it in half. (Don’t have green paper? Let the kids loose with some paint first.) Have your child draw a cloud shape on the paper, then cut it out. You should get two identical clouds. Then you can glue (or staple if it’s easier) the bottom flat part of the cloud to one end of the toilet paper tube and voila! You’ve got a tree. Make multiples and you have a forest as a backdrop for an assortment of play.

Binoculars: One tube makes a great “telescope.” Put two tubes together side by side and you get a pair of binoculars. While neither actually lets kids see further, they can focus on specific items. It can also help kids notice smaller details or whittle down an overwhelming environment into manageable chunks, though my kids just love to look.

Swords: Toilet paper tubes can nest inside one another as well, to make longer tubes. These swords work great for siblings, because they don’t do any damage to people or belongings. They also fall apart easily, and can be rebuilt repeatedly to battle over and over again. The person with the longest sword remaining wins. My kids took it one step further and added their swords to a cardboard box to make a tank.